Sandrosimo wrote:Some of the negative criticism is not on the 'developer just pocketing money'.. but more that another business model might also work, bring more players, keep the game alive and interesting for us. So I think it's quite the opposite from what you say.
Ding, ding, ding!! You limit us to two hours of card loot battle, one of them in the middle of the night for me, and said that this way more people would play. Well, I've been looking at the screen of me trying to find somebody to fight for 15 minutes now. Hardly anybody plays.
We aren't asking for free rides, we're asking that you encourage people to play. You say you put things in place to benefit new players and get people playing (energy, easier quests, time limitations on play modes), but they aren't coming. And I can understand why.
But since you brought it up, yes, it does appear that the developers try to line their pockets with each update. We used to be able to buy rubies with gold, now we can't. We used to be able to buy diamond cards with gold, now we can't. Even timing out on a card loot battle. If we time out, we lose 500 gold, but if our opponent times out we only get 250 of that gold. The rest goes to you. Does this help new players? Does this get more players playing? Of course it doesn't, yet you do things like this and then deny it when we, your loyal players, call you on the fact that you are keeping with the business model of "play to win". It isn't working man!
We don't want free rides, but we do want to see some benefit to playing. 200 gold and a small handful of rubies is rather "meh" for putting in a handful of games, but it is better than nothing. Then there is your precious ladder, which you were saying was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. The top rewards are going to end up going to players who have already spit out hundreds of dollars your direction. Again, play to win. The rest? We'll be lucky to see 25 diamonds. **25 DIAMONDS??!?!?** For a tournament that lasts a month? This will, in no way, encourage people to want to play, or even want to pay to play. Who is going to plop down a few hundred dollars in hopes of getting a little higher in the ranking and win 25 diamonds. That's like winning $2.50 in a MONTH LONG TOURNAMENT. *sigh* *smh*
Your greed turns away potential players, which ruins the game overall. Let me stress: we aren't asking for a free ride. We don't WANT a free ride... because everybody would have one. But make playing the game worth the effort. Give a bigger reward for leveling. Let people have more to show for an hour or two of playing than winning a couple of hundred gold *IF* they can keep their win % over 50%. Look at league of legends or hearthstone for legitimate and profitable business models. Those games are ROLLING in it. Mostly because they encourage and reward gameplay and make money from the microtransactions of the people who want a slight edge or a speedup in their leveling.
Above all, listen to the people in this forum instead of attacking them. I've seen you say harsh things to Pennfifteen and others of your players. Even that post you put in the announcements was extremely insulting. The whole "if you don't get this, you're an idiot" thing. I'd feel more like an idiot if I just blindly accepted what you said. It certainly doesn't encourage me to play more.
Bottom line: Stop infuriating your loyal base of players.